Most Popular
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Exports to US reach all-time high, widen gap with China
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Trump rekindles criticism: US forces defending 'wealthy' S. Korea 'free of charge'
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Opposition-led Assembly unilaterally passes bill to probe Marine's death
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[Music in drama] Rekindle a love that slipped through your fingers
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Inflation eases in April, continues bumpy ride
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Golden chance to liquidate babies’ gold rings?
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Seoul Metro to seek legal action against malicious complaints
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Illit, mired in controversy, remains on Billboard charts for 5th week
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[New faces of Assembly] Architect behind ‘audacious initiative’ believes in denuclearized North Korea
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On May Day, labor unions blast Yoon's foreign nanny proposal
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Korea's trade terms again dip in Dec.
South Korea's trade terms continued to worsen from a year earlier in December, largely due to export prices falling at a faster rate than import prices, but the rate of decline in export prices slowed to a 13-month low, central bank data showed Wednesday. The terms of trade index for products came to 91.09 in the month, down 2.6 percent from a year earlier, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea. The trade terms index measures the amount of imports a country can purchase for eac
Jan. 29, 2020
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Biz sentiment remains weak: survey
Business sentiment about the immediate future in South Korea remains weak due to uncertainties at home and abroad, a local think tank said Wednesday. The business survey index of the country's top 600 companies by sales came to 92 for February, slightly up from the 89.3 recorded for this month but below the benchmark 100, according to the Korea Economic Research Institute. A reading below 100 means pessimists outnumber optimists, while a figure above the benchmark means the opposite. "T
Jan. 29, 2020
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Brexit not to affect bilateral trade ties with S. Korea
Britain's separation from the European Union slated for later this week is unlikely to have a direct impact on its bilateral trade ties with South Korea, as the two have already signed a back-up agreement, industry watchers said Wednesday. London is widely expected to depart from the EU, the world's single largest economic bloc, on Friday. Major economies around the globe, including Asia's No. 4 economy, have been closely monitoring London's divorce from the EU, as the separation would mean
Jan. 29, 2020
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Korea's January exports tipped to fall 7.5%: poll
South Korea's exports are expected to drop 7.5 percent on-year in January to extend their slump to 14 consecutive months despite a mild recovery in chip shipments, a poll showed Wednesday, due mainly to there being fewer working days compared to a year earlier. Outbound shipments are estimated to reach $42.7 billion this month, according to the poll by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency. The survey was carried out on 10 local brokerage houses. The country's trade sur
Jan. 29, 2020
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S. Korea's consumer sentiment sharply improves for Jan.
South Korea's consumer sentiment improved sharply from a month earlier in January, central bank data showed Wednesday, amid outlooks that the country's economic conditions will improve down the road. The composite consumer sentiment index came to 104.2 for the month, up from 100.5 for the previous month, according to the data from the Bank of Korea. The reading marks the highest since June 2018, as well as the largest on-month gain since September 2019, when the index jumped 4.6 points from a
Jan. 29, 2020
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S. Korea to spend W20.8b to combat spread of coronavirus
South Korea will use 20.8 billion won ($17.7 million) of its national budget to contain the new Wuhan coronavirus, while keeping a close watch for potential negative effects on the local economy from the outbreak, the top fiscal policy chief said Tuesday. “Of the budget allocated for this year, 6.7 billion won set aside for building a quarantine system, 5.2 billion won for diagnosis and 2.9 billion won for isolated treatment -- culminating in a total of 20.8 billion won -- will be execut
Jan. 28, 2020
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Corporate direct financing jumps 3.3% in 2019: data
South Korean companies' equity and debt sales rose 3.3 percent on-year in 2019 due mainly to a rise in corporate bond issuance, data showed Tuesday. Local companies raised 175.49 trillion won ($149 billion) by selling stocks and bonds last year, compared with 169.8 trillion won in the previous year, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service. The surge is attributable to the 5.8 percent on-year growth in the value of corporate bonds issued, including bank bonds and asset-bac
Jan. 28, 2020
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OECD further cuts Korea's potential growth rate
South Korea's potential economic growth rate may have permanently been reduced, apparently because of a steady decline in its workforce and productivity, according to an OECD report Tuesday. According to the report, South Korea's potential growth rate for the year is estimated at 2.5 percent, down 0.2 percentage point from a year earlier. A potential growth rate refers to the maximum possible rate an economy can grow without triggering inflation. South Korea's rate has been on a steady decli
Jan. 28, 2020
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Seoul, Manila to hold 5th round of FTA talks
South Korea said Tuesday it plans to hold the fifth round of talks with the Philippines on a bilateral free trade agreement this week, with a goal of concluding the deal this year. During the three-day negotiation that begins in Manila on Wednesday, the two countries plan to set details of the articles of the agreement, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Seoul and Manila launched their free trade negotiations in June last year. In November, the two countries agreed to c
Jan. 28, 2020
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S. Korea remains watchful of economic fallout from Wuhan coronavirus cases
South Korea said Tuesday it would spare no efforts to tackle with potential economic fallout from the Wuhan coronavirus, while vowing to take steps, if necessary, to minimize any negative impact. "We are closely examining the impact of the spread (of the virus) in China on its consumption and production, along with the global economy and our exports," Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said during an emergency meeting held with related ministries. "For now, it has had a limited impac
Jan. 28, 2020
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[News Focus] Number of nonregular workers up 900,000 during Moon’s term
SEJONG – State employment data showed that job creation under the Moon administration two years has been entirely in nonregular positions. The number of regular jobs -- positions with permanent contracts and consequently greater protections for workers -- has fallen over the period. The figures suggest the number of regular workers stayed at a similar level during the first year of President Moon Jae-in’s term -- 13.42 million as of August 2017 and 13.43 million as of August 2018.
Jan. 27, 2020
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[News Focus] Boon or bane: How will real estate curbs play at the ballot box?
The Moon Jae-in administration’s continued efforts to curb skyrocketing housing prices were mostly attempts to divert the market’s liquidity towards innovative industries, to reduce the widening wealth gap, and to cut back on the nation’s snowballing household debts. But in light of the approaching parliamentary elections, slated for April this year, skepticism has been mounting that the government’s heavy-handed push may be populist gestures to divide political camps an
Jan. 27, 2020
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S. Korea's land price growth falls below 4% in 2019
South Korea's official land prices grew less than 4 percent in 2019, data showed Monday, expanding at a slower pace than the previous year for the first time since 2013. The country's land prices increased 3.92 percent on-year in 2019, slowing from a 4.58 percent gain in 2018, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Land prices in Seoul posted the highest growth at 5.29 percent, followed by the administrative town of Sejong, 130 kilometers south of the capital city, w
Jan. 27, 2020
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Korean economy may pull of slower-than-expected growth in 2020
South Korea's economy is expected to rebound this year from the slowest growth in a decade last year, but it may continue to face many economic headwinds, including sluggish demands at home and abroad, analysts said Monday. Asia's fourth-largest economy grew 2 percent from a year earlier in 2019, the slowest since 2009, as its exports and facility investment remained weak, the Bank of Korea said last week. Earlier, the country's finance ministry expected the economy to grow in the lower 2 per
Jan. 27, 2020
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Woori Financial to shortlist new CEO candidates for banking unit
Woori Financial Group, a major South Korean banking group, plans to shortlist new CEO candidates for its flagship banking unit next week, a company official has said.Woori Financial has selected seven candidates for the top post at Woori Bank. It declined to identify them because the process is under way.The successful candidate will begin a two-year term as Woori Bank‘s CEO if approved at Woori Bank’s general shareholders‘ meeting in March, the official said.Woori Bank, South
Jan. 25, 2020
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BOK floats 6tr won worth of fresh bills ahead of Lunar New Year's Day
The Bank of Korea said Thursday it has issued over 6 trillion won ($5.15 billion) worth of fresh banknotes ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday that starts on Friday.The move apparently comes in preparation for high demand for fresh bills due to the long-lived tradition of elders offering cash gifts to younger ones after receiving deep bows as the first greeting in a new year.For the past 10 days, the South Korean central bank supplied about 6.09 trillion won worth of fresh banknotes to banks and
Jan. 23, 2020
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S. Korea fines Google over YouTube Premium service
South Korea's telecommunications regulator said Wednesday it has imposed a fine of 867 million won ($740,000) on Google Limited Liability Corp. for violating local telecom laws in the operation of its YouTube Premium service.In a two-year investigation through December 2018, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) found Google didn't properly notify the YouTube Premium service users of the fact that the streaming service converts to a charged service after a one-month free trial service. "
Jan. 23, 2020
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S. Korea’s 2019 economic growth skids to lowest in decade
South Korea’s economy in 2019 marked the slowest growth pace in a decade, mostly weighed down by the US-China trade tensions, the central bank said Wednesday.The nation’s gross domestic product expanded 2.01 percent on-year, according to advance data from the Bank of Korea.While the government’s 2-percent target has been attained, it fell short of the potential growth rate of 2.5-2.6 percent. This also was the slowest on-year growth since 2009, when the economy grew 0.8 percen
Jan. 22, 2020
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S. Korea prepared to curb economic fallout from China coronavirus
South Korea's finance ministry said Wednesday it will make efforts to minimize possible economic fallout from the spread of the China coronavirus amid worries that it could hurt local consumption.Vice Finance Minister Kim Yong-beom made the remarks at a meeting with senior financial officials earlier in the day, the ministry said in a statement. South Korea's financial markets are seeing volatility rise amid jitters over the virus, which emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last mon
Jan. 22, 2020
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Korea's 2019 growth slowest in decade, Q4 expansion faster than expected
The South Korean economy expanded at the slowest pace in a decade in 2019, largely weighed down by an extended slump in outbound shipments amid a lengthy trade row between the United States and China, the central bank said Wednesday.South Korea's gross domestic product expanded 2 percent in 2019 from a year earlier, according to advance data from the Bank of Korea.The figure marks the slowest on-year growth since 2009, when Asia's fourth-largest economy expanded 0.7 percent in the aftermath of t
Jan. 22, 2020